Sensex @7,900; auto scrips rally

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 12 points at 7,888, and zoomed to an all-time high of 7,928 in early deals. Profit-taking saw the index drop to negative zone soon, and touched a low of 7,836.

Renewed buying at lower levels saw the index recoup ground, and finally close with a gain of 24 points at 7,900.

All the sectoral indices, except BSE Teck, BSE Capital Goods and BSE Consumer Durables indices, closed with gains. The BSE Metal Index was up 1.3% (84 points) at 6,468. The BSE Oil & Gas Index was up 0.6% (21 points) at 3,681. The BSE Teck index was down 0.5% (11 points) at 2,063.

The broad market turned bearish - out of 2,659 scrips traded, 1,458 declined, 1,150 advanced and 51 were unchanged today.

Maruti zoomed over 5% (Rs 26) to Rs 511. Tata Motors was also up 5% (Rs 23) at Rs 492. While Bajaj moved up 3.3% (Rs 49) to Rs 1,504, Hero Honda added Rs 19 to Rs 683.

Tata Steel gained 3% (Rs 12) to Rs 405.

SBI was up Rs 6 at Rs 806, and ITC moved up Rs 5 to Rs 1,734. While Reliance was up Rs 4 at Rs 731, HLL was up a rupee at Rs 169.

Cipla and Dr. Reddy's moved up over a per cent each to Rs 347 and Rs 781, respectively.

TCS and Wipro finished with gains at Rs 1,429 and Rs 374, respectively.

L&T declined 2% (Rs 29) to Rs 1,312. Infosys slipped 1.7% (Rs 42) to Rs 2,385. HDFC, Grasim, NTPC, Ranbaxy and ICICI Bank also declined.

Liberty Shoes was locked at its 10% upper limit at Rs 362 (up Rs 33) after the company announced the formation of a 49:51 joint venture with Pantaloon Retail for footwear business.

Jain Irrigation Systems was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 366 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 143 crore), HT Media (Rs 98 crore), Sipcejet (Rs 97 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 88 crore).